I stare at the smoking corpse in front of me.

“Great. Another failure. How many does this make...?”

I glance at a worn book with pages sticking out.

“Three hundreed...fifty four? Three hundred fifty six. Three hundred fifty six times and not even a twitch. What am I doing wrong?”

I glance back and forth between my notes and my spell tome, looking for something I might have missed; I list ingredients and spells to myself. I close the book, sighing in frustration as I pack a satchel with some herbs and tools. I walk out of my home, and after making sure it was clear, recited the charm I use to hide my house from humans. I slowly walk towards a nearby town, carefully checking my surroundings for the human hunters that frequent the woods around my house. I stay at the edge of the woods when I reach the village, walking along the edge to the village’s cemetery. I look around and head in, searching for any recently dug graves.

I hear voices getting closer and quickly hide behind a tombstone. I see torchlight closeby not long after I’ve hidden. I clasp my hand over my mouth and try to slow my breathing, hoping that the humans don’t find me. I slowly lower my hand after I calm down and move to look out from behind the gravestone. A group of humans are standing over a freshly dug grave; one of them, presumably the gravedigger, is making sure the coffin will fit in the hole. I watch them closely, intending to take the body after they leave.

It takes about as long as I expected --roughly an hour-- for the humans to bury the body. I wait until I’m sure they’re gone and jog over to the grave. Upon reciting a spell, the dirt floats off the coffin, the coffin opens, and the body inside is lifted out by shadows. I recite another spell to replace the coffin lid and dirt. The shadowy tendrils that lifted the corpse carry it silently behind me as I head home.

I stop not far from my home upon seeing a large group of humans near it. I set the body down carefully and watch them from behind a tree. They talk amongst each other as two others speak to the group. The larger of the two men, I assume the leader of what’s probably a hunting party, puts his hand on the other’s shoulder.

“You say this is the witch’s home, boy?”

The younger man nods. And turns to the crowd.

“I saw her enchant it,” He pats my front door. “This here is the witch’s house disguised as a rock.”

I get ready to fight them off as the larger man speaks again.

“We should burn it down then. Let’s hope that girl gets caught in the blaze, and may our dead finally be at rest with her death.”

Most of the crowd shouts their agreement. There are a few, however, who speak out. A woman in the back shouts to the two men in front.

“You’ve already exiled poor Natalia. She’s just a girl, and hasn’t done anything to hurt us.”

I close my eyes, not wanting to see what happens to her. I pity the woman for protecting me. Me, a twenty-three-year old necromancer. I hear a few thumps as the crowd kills the poor woman.

I get a spell ready, intending to scare the people away from my home. Shadows wind around the trees, making them move and sway. I use another spell to make my eyes glow red. I come out from my hiding place with a pitch black magic covering my arms. The humans’ eyes grow wide. They trip over each other as they run away, the large man attempting to take command of the party. The crowd has gone, and the large man stands alone holding a short sword. I cast a spell, making the shadows beneath him take hold of his body. I force him to sheath his sword and return to the village.

I stare at the corpse of the woman in front of me, torn as to whether or not I should use her for my experiment. Shadows carry the corpse I grabbed earlier into my home and set it on the table while I debate with myself. I sit against an oak, weighing my morality against my experiment. Half an hour passes and I decide to bury the woman. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, and I need to move before the hunting party comes back.

I cast the spell to bury her, immediately casting another larger spell after. Shadows slowly lift my house, and the trees surrounding it move to clear a path. I climb into my home as it starts moving. The trees close behind us and the ground smooths itself, covering my tracks. I get to work on the body I got from the cemetery. I stop, almost forgetting to dispel the red glow from my eyes. I blink a couple times and rub my eyes as they return to their normal brightish violet color.

I roam around my house, collecting ingredients I need for my experiment. I recite a preserving spell on the body so that any organs I damage can be repaired easily. I grab my knife and carefully cut open the corpse’s chest to make sure that all the man’s organs are still there and in good shape. I double check every vital organ for damage or signs that the man had an illness in life. The few abnormalities I find are easily fixed. I seal up the man’s chest and glance at my notes to see what I need to do next.

“Mix this with nightshade. Grind the stone charm... Boil water and pour these in...”

I double check that I’ve done everything I need to and mixed the right substances.

I take my knife, cleaning it and my hands. I lift the knife and make a small cut on my finger. My blood stains my fair skin and I shiver. The thought of using blood magic makes me grimace. I’ve heard of what happens to people who use blood magic and it’s not pretty. I touch my finger to my lips, and I swallow a little of my blood. I bandage the cut and shiver again. My body feels weird and it feels like my blood is boiling, but at the same time, I feel powerful. I take the magic dust-like stuff I created and start spreading it over the corpse while reciting a spell I’ve used many times, praying that this attempt goes better than the last three hundred and fifty-six.

I finish the spell, expecting positive results. The body crumbles to dust and I sigh. I stumble over to a chair and sit down slowly. Another failure in the books and the blood magic is already affecting me. I cast healing spell after spell, trying to stop whatever is happening. I cry out, my body feeling like it’s burning. I manage a few cancelation spells and the feeling subsides.  I stand up, and go over to the experiment to try and figure out what I did wrong. I sigh in frustration.

“Arguably a worse failure than the last attempt, since the last body only burst into flames.”

I get up, looking at the tome and notes.

“I copied every step exactly. What am I missing?”

I look at the page depicting the charm stone, wondering if it needs a specific gem or charm. I double check every page as I rewrite my notes to make sure I didn’t miss any specific details or ingredients. I look at my familiar, a black tabby cat with large, green eyes.

“Tired of seeing me try and fail, huh,” I chuckle and call Anja over, “Don’t expect me to give up any time soon. I’ll get this right even if it takes my whole life.”

My eyes droop and Anja headbutts my arm.

“Fine, I’ll go to sleep.”

I yawn as I climb into bed, hoping sleep will help me recover from the effects of blood magic. I drift through a dream-like scrying spell. The villagers, their hunting party now larger, are searching where my house was. I smile, knowing that they won’t find anything there.

I spend the next day collecting ingredients and materials, double checking my notes, and testing all my spells on the corpses of animals. I get more frustrated with each failure. I sit down and prepare a scrying spell to see if the hunting party is still searching for me. Anja jumps on my lap and curls up.

“I give up, Anja. I haven’t successfully brought something back, and I don’t know what I’m missing or doing wrong...”

She mews at me and I pet her.

“Right. Just need to take some time to think about it.”

I look around my home, frowning at how messy I’ve let it get. Corpses are stacked in the corner, magical dust covers the floor, and the walls have a few scorch marks. I dust off my mirror and cast a scrying spell so I can watch the surrounding woods while I work. I stand looking into my house after a few long hours of work, proud of how clean it looks. I pick up my  tome and sit down, skimming through spells I might want to practice.

I find a spell to make golems and decide to try and make a shadow golem or two to defend me. I gather rocks and trees to cast the spell with. I step back to the house where Anja is waiting on the windowsill. I smile, and scratch Anja’s chin.

“I wonder how large I can make a golem…?”

I collect more rocks and trees, creating a very large pile, and I cast the spell. Nothing happens, so I read over the spell and cast it again. Still nothing happens, so I look over the spell again. I sigh, having in my excitement not noticed the ingredients listed for the spell on the next page.

I mumble a spell to summon shades; I disperse them as they appear, forcing their shadowhearts from their bodies. I take their hearts and combine them into one that I place on top of the pile of trees and rocks. Upon casting the spell again, I watch the pile move. Slowly, it moves upward, forming around the shadowy heart at its center. The rocks and some of the tree trunks form a body, with the longest of the trunks forming limbs. The golem sits up as the spell nears completion, its torso acting as its head. Shadows bust from the heart, moving through and over the golem to let it to move better, attack, and defend. I watch the golem as it stands up to its full height, the black spikes on its shoulders rising over the treetops. I cast a spell to make the trees move, giving it room to not crush my house.

I look at Anja, brimming with joy.

“My first golem!”

She mews, glaring at the golem with indifference. It crouches down and opens its hand. I grab one of its dark claws tightly as I’m lifted up to its shoulder. I stare out across the forest in awe, tightly hugging one of the golems spikes as it lumbers towards a lake in the distance.

I look down at the village, hearing shouts and screams as the golem passes by. I giggle, watching the humans run around like ants as they prepare to attack my golem. Spears and arrows fly at the golem, but some bounce off and others get stuck in the tree trunks. The golem continues towards the lake. It sits down once we reach the lake side and lowers me to the ground. I look around, wondering why my golem brought me here.

I walk along the sand, searching the lakebed for any relics or rocks to make charms. My golem reaches out to the middle of the lake, pulls up what looks to be a box, and puts it on the shore next to me. I walk around the large black box, examining the symbols inscribed on each side. I look through the tome and learn that each symbol represents a certain element. I cast a spell on each side, experimenting to see if using an element on its symbol will do anything. Nothing happens, so I try using elements on the symbols of their opposing elements. The box clicks and pops, making me jump back. It opens to reveal another, much older tome than the one I’m carrying.

Hearing human voices, I grab the new tome and climb back on my golem. It rises up and starts walking back towards home. I read through the tome as the golem takes me back to my house. It’s a lot more detailed than the one I have and seems to be written solely about black magic. I skim through the book, looking for a page or two on necromancy. I sigh in disbelief when I find them.

My golem drops me off at the house and lumbers off to lead the humans away. I wave and go inside, grabbing the ingredients I needed to reanimate a corpse from outside my house. I open the new tome to the pages about necromancy and check to see if I have everything I need. I slip out to grab a corpse from the village’s graveyard while the humans are distracted by my golem.

I come home quickly and start preparing the same magic dust with the new ingredient--a couple drops of nectar from a sunflower. I spread the dust over the corpse while reciting the spell. Nothing happens and I sit down, holding my head in my hands. I hear the copse groan, and look up to see it slowly sitting up. I hug Anja, laughing and celebrating my first successful attempt at reanimating a corpse.

“One step closer to bringing them back.”